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RUSMIDDEL-Rusmiddelforskning

VALIDAD Pilot - Development of a valid test battery for assessing driving ability when influenced by drugs

Tildelt: kr 5,5 mill.

Road traffic safety is a significant issue for society. In the European Union there are approximately 45 000 traffic fatalities annually. The majority of these accidents are caused by human error, and the use of drugs (both prescribed and illegal compound s) is a significant contributor in this respect. Driver impairment caused by drugs may constitute a serious risk not only for the driver, but also for any other road user and bystander. The evaluation of risk increase with respect to drug influence in ro ad traffic accidents calls for detailed and validated information regarding driver performance. Such information is difficult to obtain by direct means, and relies to some extent on the use of laboratory models. These models' predictive ability may be que stionable, and calls for validation procedures. In order to generate information about how prescribed drugs affect driving ability for legal and medical authorities, road authorities, and the general public, we propose to develop a valid test battery to p redict driving performance under the influence of drugs. The test battery will be developed by means of an instrumented vehicle on a test track to validate the SINTEF/NTNU driving simulator. The latter exhibit a realistic road environment where traffic s ituations, including emergencies, can be presented. Driver drowsiness, swivelling, speed fluctuations, braking, acceleration, steering precision, reaction time etc. can be measured both in the driving simulator and the instrumented vehicle. As reference studies, We will subsequently proceed with invenstigations of the effect of zopiclone, codeine and long term benzodiazepine use on driving performance. Within the VALIDAD pilot study we have alredy recieved approval for all the planned studies within the project. In addition a prototype test battery has been developed and a study of driver performance under the influence of ethanol at different levels has been conducted.

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RUSMIDDEL-Rusmiddelforskning